Leigh “Danny” Daniel Avidan

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As you get older, you may have to take on responsibilities such as getting a job or handling taxes and bills, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up what makes you happy, like video games or singing. At thirty-two years old, Dan Avidan still lives by this logic, as he has sung many wonderful songs in fantastic bands, currently sings in a comedy band obviously aimed for adults called Ninja Sex Party (or NSP), and gets to sit with his best friends on a couch while making perverted jokes and having good bro time on the Youtube let’s-play channel called “Game Grumps,” while still leading a regular (and undisclosed) nine to five job.

Danny grew up in a Jewish home, and originally went to college for a business degree; though ever since he was young, he knew that he wanted to be a singer. His first band he played in was called The Northern Hues, and his second was known as Skyhill, both of which didn’t last long, but made one album each and focused in the alternative field of music. The Northern Hues was formed in 2002 by guitarist Aaron Brand and Jeff Rains, while Dan joined shortly later. Information on the band is scarce, but records of live shows exist for a bit past 2004, while the band focused on British punk rock and new wave, with a bit of American indie/rock for sound inspirations, and looked to bands like Verve, New Order, and early Genesis for inspiration in their album “The Northern Hues EP.”

Skyhill was formed around 2006 and based in Brooklyn, where Danny formed the band with Peter Lennox, who played the guitars and piano while Dan sang vocals, his trademark position in bands. Skyhill lasted from 2006 to early 2007, while focusing on bands such as Zero 7, Massive Attack, Depeche Mode, and U2 for inspiration; and focusing on combinations of downtempo electronica, European house, and alt/indie rock for sounds. They too only released one album, “Run With the Hunted,” though it had a few more songs than the other album.

Later on, Danny went on to form a comedy band, Ninja Sex party, with a man named Brian Wecht in 2009, dawning their band personas, the womanizer “Danny Y. Sexbang” (the Y standing for “you”, which is encompassed by Danny and Sexbang in a loving manner), and the murderous silent psychopath, Ninja Brian. Not going to lie, the band isn’t exactly family friendly (as if the title wasn’t evident enough); while the songs mostly focus around the sexual nature, they occasionally have minor sillier songs, and nothing is meant to be taken seriously. Except Ninja Brian. This band is still going strong, and since then Danny has teamed up for a couple of music videos such as “Dinosaur Laser Fight” (animated by Egoraptor/Arin Hanson) and “The Ultimate Sandwich” (animated by Rubberninja/ross/Ross O’Donovan), while also joining Game Grumps as the new “Not So Grump,” and joining Egoraptor and Ninja Brian to form their rap band focused on video game parodies, Starbomb (which just released not long ago!), also a bit nsfw.

Danny is a swell guy who encourages his fans to stay positive and is just an overall great person to be around, despite the songs he writes. If you want to listen to some awesome music, and aren’t offended by mature themes in his later works, then I strongly encourage you to give The Northern Hues, Skyhill, NSP, and Starbomb a chance, and maybe support him in the even more immature Game Grumps.